6.28.2006

Bog Bodies: The Tollund Man

We all know about King Tut, and the Egyptian mummies....today I discovered the wonder of Bog Bodies, most notably that of the Tollund Man, found in a bog in Denmark in the '50s. It seems there is a strange conglomeration of peat moss acids, cold water, and sea salts which preserve bodies, tossed in thousands of years ago, mostly as sacrifices to the gods. I would like to visit one of these bogs, maybe picnic near it :) Reminds me of the Dead Marshes.I love the look of this fella, sleeping peacefully. Check out the preservation of the hair and stubble on his chin. Amazing. It is theorized that he was strangled with the noose around his neck, not as a criminal, because of the way he is arranged, and the serene look of him, but as a worthy sacrifice to their god(s) which we know little about apparently. The website has a ton of information, everything from daily life to what his last meal was (oatmeal basically) to preservation of the body once removed from the bog (involving replacing the bog water in his cells with bee's wax).

7 comments:

Wow, awesome! I got chills when that first showed up in my browser. It's creepy/fascinating at the same time. Reminds me of when I cleaned out the garage and found a mummified racoon under a stack of cedar shakes. It looked so cool I wanted to take a picture and post it on my blog, but I laid it next to the garage and the next day it was gone. Bummer. There were also a pair of geckos that apparently fell into the basement sink (big metal tub-style sink) and couldn't get out. They died curled against each other in everlasting togetherness.. it was kind of touching really, until I picked one up (stiff as a board, just mummified scaly skin and tiny little bones) and what looked like a very fine white powder started falling out. Closer inspection showed the 'powder' was actually alive... tiny little insects of some kind... yuck!

I'll also nevere forget seeing (somewhere... tv documentary maybe?) a picture of a bunch of dead wolves like that all piled in a pit. The heads and paws were almost normal looking (like this guy... since those parts are almost entirely bone) but the bodies were just leathery skin stretched over the skeleton. I'd love to finds that pic again. Probably somewhere on the internet... I believe it's a famous picture.

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I am Jeffrey Roché...

...an artist, exploring techniques in any and all media, though some of my favorites include charcoal, acrylic & oil painting, and woodcut printmaking. My focus over the past five years or so has been stop-motion animation, which draws on every ounce of my creativity, from sculpting and painting to photography, and everything in between.

No matter which medium I am working in, my themes remain consistent. I consider myself to be a Modern Magical Realist, incorporating magical or mythical elements into otherwise everyday settings and situations. Magic exists in the mundane, all around us in daily life, but especially here in New Orleans. There is a mystical vibe in this city that inspires me as an artist. I've felt it all my life, under the moss-covered oaks of City Park, on the wrought-iron balconies of the French Quarter, near the banks of the Mighty Mississippi, or amidst the cold marble of Lafayette Cemetery.